Sunday, 29 April 2012

Review: His Greatness, Finborough

“I don’t write about my life”

A programme note informs us that His Greatness is not a play about
Tennessee Williams. Instead, Canadian writer Daniel MacIvor has chosen to write
a tale inspired by him, based on ‘a potentially true story’ from the twilight
of his career. In a hotel room in Vancouver, ‘the playwright’ (never named...)
is still clinging onto the lustre of his former glories and desperate to recapture
the dream with his latest premiere. But even his ever loyal assistant is
beginning to flag and the arrival of a rent boy into the claustrophobic hotel
room over a trying 24 hour period forces a reassessment on the part of all
three men.

Jean-Marc Puissant’s traverse design does an excellent job of
transforming the Finborough’s space into a slightly drab hotel room, double bed
at one end and desk at the other, from where bon mots are bounced and verbal
volleys are launched, languid seductions attempted and frustrated dreams ground
down to dust. MacIvor’s writing is sharp and funny as the three men play the
power games they can to come out on top but as the play progresses, the tone
becomes more reflective, increasingly bitter as the realities of chasing fading
stars become painfully apparent. ChéWalker’s
intense production manages this inexorable shift extremely well, mainly thanks
to an outstanding cast.

Matthew Marsh (apparently a late replacement in this cast) brings an
appealing charm to the emotionally volatile playwright, hungry for affection
and validation and all too willing to seek refuge in male escorts and pills.
Toby Wharton (last at the Finborough as the star and co-writer of Fog) as the taut
young man hired as eye candy balances a sexual cockiness and an almost
endearing denseness to create something just a little tragic, full of hopeless
dreams. But it is Russell Bentley’s (last seen in Williams' own A Streetcar Named Desire) factotum who really steals the show, a
former lover of Williams’ who now attends to his every need and tries to keep
him on the straight and narrow as best he can. Bentley’s cajoling interplay
with Marsh is deliciously played and there’s a great cattiness about him, with an
underlying jealousy of course, as he sees Wharton’s tighty-whities attempting
to supplant him.

Tennessee William fans might be a little disappointed if they’ve booked
this show in the anticipation of some biographical insight, but MacIvor’s scope
is wider than just that and the resulting work in His Greatness is something
that is consequently much more affecting. The strong intimations of Williams
are cleverly used as a compelling hook yet what emerges is a powerful message
that should resonate with anyone, gay or straight, about not leaving it too
late to live one’s own life.

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I write reviews of plays, sometimes with a critical element, on this blog. But call me a reviewer, a critic or a blogger, and you will apparently put someone or other's nose out of joint! So take it or leave it, essentially this is my theatrical diary, recording everything I go to see at the theatre in London and beyond, and venturing a little into the worlds of music and film/tv where theatrical connections can be made.